“I guess that depends on how you take it. While you were in the infirmary, I got a call from the second-floor lab. Inside each case were wires and parts pieced together so they look like a bomb. The lab woman said they were put together like a lower-secondary class was given a science project to build a suitcase bomb.”

Nir pictured what he’d seen in the briefcase. That sounded about right. “How do we know they’re supposed to be suitcase nukes? Couldn’t they just be practicing to set off conventional bombs?”

Nicole lifted her phone and made a few swipes, then passed it across. Nir saw a photo of a yellow and black radiation warning triangle.

“Now I remember,” he said. He recognized that sticker. It was in that same briefcase. In the craziness of the event, he’d forgotten it was there.

“Each one of the cases had one or more of those stickers.”

A concerning thought struck Nir. “Does that mean we may have been exposed to something?”

Nicole shook her head. “No, they were only for show. Like, ‘Hey guys, don’t forget these are supposed to be nukes.’ So what happens now?”

“Hang on,” he said, standing. They had a usual routine where he ended up drinking Nicole’s drink after he’d finished his. But her buying iced coffee had thrown off the ritual. At the counter, he ordered a second cappuccino and asked the woman to deliver it to the table. When he got back, he said, “Now the ramsad goes to the prime minister, hopefully to tell him it’s finally time to permanently shut down Iran’s nuclear program.”

“Can we do that?”

“With enough firepower. It will cause a major international incident, and we’ll be paying for it publicly for a long time, but behind the scenes a lot of people will be happy we finally did something definitive.”

Holding her straw stationary, Nicole swirled her mug to spread the cold around. “Will Iran declare war?”

“They might. They’ve got plenty of missiles stockpiled. But they would hesitate to go all out with their conventional weapons.”

“Why’s that?”

“First, there would be little international backing. Again, while publicly nations may be sympathetic, most will be glad they don’t have to worry about a nuclear Iran anymore. But more importantly, you must remember that while they may not be a nuclear power, we are. Likely, what will happen is we’ll have rockets showered on us for a while from the north and the south, so it will probably be a good idea for you to stay away. But unless Russia gets involved…and they might. They keep inching their way farther and farther south in Syria. But unless they engage, we’ll survive it.”

“So if the prime minister approves this, how long until you think the strike will happen?”

“That really depends on the Saudis.”